Friendship Caught on Fire
by fowl68
Summary: They loved each other a long time before either of them knew about it. Shellos


**Disclaimer:** Don't own Tales of Symphonia.

**Author's Note:** A week and some change left of school and then it is on to summer vacation! Can't wait. Borrowing this from a chain letter I got that I thought was rather cute.

-/-/-/-/-/

_Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable. ~Bruce Lee_

-/-/-/-/

**Kiss on forehead - I hope we're together forever.**

Over the course of the journey, they'd all become accustomed to each other's sleeping patterns. Even now that the journey is months over, Sheena knows that it has to be one of _those_ days if she wakes up after Zelos. She'd been trained to rise with the sun and it's a habit she's been unable to break, for the most part. But today is one of those days when she simply had not wanted to get out of bed and she half-stumbled into the kitchen, doing a rather good impression of a zombie, and hopped lazily onto the stool of the island in the middle of the kitchen.

Zelos looks over at her and has to hold back a smile. Every time he walked down here and didn't see Sheena at the coffee pot, it always surprised him. Zelos doesn't remember ever sitting down and discussing the fact that Sheena was going to stay with him for a while. It was something entirely left unsaid. She was still technically Mizuho's ambassador and after all of the trouble with the world reunification, she'd also become the peace ambassador, so it only made sense that she had a place to stay in Meltokio.

Besides which, Zelos is sure that all of their companions are living with someone else for the time being because he knows that for the week before Sheena had knocked on the door at three in the morning that he couldn't sleep because it was simply too quiet. Over the months of the journey, he'd grown used to hearing Regal's soft snores and every one else's gentle breathing. Had accustomed himself to the soft crunching of peoples boots on dirt when they got up for their watch and to the sounds of the outside at night.

It used to be that he couldn't sleep with all the noise. Ironically, it was difficult for him to sleep without it now.

He pushed a mug of coffee into her hands. "Morning, darling."

Sheena blinked blearily up at him. His red hair, still in its braid so it wouldn't get knotted in his sleep seemed too strong a color for such a gray morning, considering the rain pattering on the windows. "You're far too bright for this early in the morning."

Zelos couldn't hold back the smile that time. "Oh really?"

"Yes, really." Sheena sipped at the coffee, loving its strong smell. She isn't sure whether it's a good or bad thing that Zelos knows how she takes her coffee. Three sugars and a few drops of cream. And now that she thinks about it, she knows how he likes his coffee as well. He likes it black, black as the devil's own heart.

They share the newspaper while they eat breakfast. He doesn't like a whole lot to eat in the morning, munching on buttered toast, slightly burnt, and she eats an entire plate of eggs and ham. She reads on side, occasionally saying an interesting headline aloud, while he does the same with the opposite side and then they switch. It's a small fight for the comics, one that he usually wins.

She's sufficiently awake now that she can glare at him, and he can only grin at it as he pecks a kiss on her forehead. "Early bird gets the worm." He teases and she sticks her tongue out at him.

**Kiss on shoulder - I want you.**

She hates dressing for the dinner parties that, as both part of political parties and living in the noble quarters, they're forced to attend. Zelos can often hear her muttered cursing and frustrated stomps in the next room.

Zelos is always the first one that's finished getting dressed (he has had years of practice after all) and will always knock on her door and wait for her to allow him to come in before entering and sitting on her bed. Sheena changes behind a screen and he can make sense of her curses now and he has to admit, they're quite imaginative.

"Having trouble darling?" He asks when she snarls at something.

"Stupid…zipper!"

Zelos slides behind the screen and is momentarily stunned. The sleeveless dress is the color of candle-lit wine and the skirt flares away from her hips. Sheena hasn't combed her hair yet—the struggle with the dress would've messed it up anyway—and she never wears any make-up, but Zelos can't help but think that she's one of the most lovely women he's ever seen.

He shook his head to clear his mind and found the source of the problem. The zipper went all the way up her back and, even as flexible as Sheena was, her arm didn't want to reach. Patting her hands away from the zipper, he moved her hair over her shoulder and zipped the dress up in one smooth motion.

But before he moved away, he, greatly daring, dropped a kiss on her bare shoulder and scurried out of the room before she threw something at him, even as she was thanking him for helping.

**Playing with hair - Tell me you love me.**

They were watching one of the old films that they'd liked to watch during the hot Meltokio summers once upon a memory. _(That was all Before. Before they had known about another world named Sylvarant, before they'd known anyone named Mithos or Kratos, before they'd seen the result of an insane, broken boy's plots)_ Zelos is on the floor, leaning his back on the couch and Sheena's lying on her stomach on the couch.

Halfway through the film, Zelos feels a curious sensation from his head and he turns enough so he can look at her. "Find something fascinating about my hair, darling?"

"Just wondering how you can stand to keep it this long." Sheena replies, twisting the red locks between her skilled fingers.

Zelos shrugged. He really didn't know why he let his hair grow. He thinks that at first, it was because it had always been his mother who would accompany him to the hairdresser's to get it trimmed and after her…death…he never brought himself to go back. Sebastian had cut it once or twice in his youth, but those times had been far and few between. Now, Zelos thinks he's just too used to it to really care much anymore.

"Seriously," Sheena's saying, "How do you have the patience to take care of this much hair?"

Zelos has seen her hair down, usually only while it dries after she takes a shower. It's just long enough to pass her shoulders and has light waves that like to get tangled easily.

"I'm just that awesome." Zelos says, grinning up at her and she cuffs him lightly over the head.

**Arms around the waist - I love you too much to let go.**

They like to walk through Meltokio's streets, especially now there are Sylvaranti entering the city for the first time, awed at the structures and the technology. Sheena wonders if that's how Lloyd and the others looked when they'd entered Meltokio for the first time too.

Zelos has long since gotten into the habit of slinging his arm over her shoulder during these walks. Sheena's the perfect height, really, the top of her head just clearing his shoulder. Sometimes, Sheena will slip her arm around his small waist and they walk like that, trying to avoid tripping over each other's feet and weaving in between the crowds.

**Kiss on the lips - I love you.**

The first time they kiss, it's an accident. They were sparring just outside of Meltokio and Sheena had a misstep. Zelos, automatically, had attempted to catch her, though she'd pulled him down with her, though he manages to twist as they fall so that he's beneath her.

He's groaning because she just elbowed him in the ribs and he's very warm. Snapping his eyes open, he's staring right at her and they're quite frozen because neither of them had dared cross this kind of boundary before. They're both scrambling to their feet after they jump apart as though they'd been shocked. _(They both have been shocked before, multiple times. They both remember Volt's Temple, remember the powerful bolts of lightning shot at them and this feels nothing at all like that)_

It is a few minutes afterwards, after they've both calmed down, that Zelos tentatively touches her waist so that she turns to him.

The second time they kiss, it's not an accident. Neither are most of the times after that.

**Laughing while kissing - I'm completely comfortable with you.**

Their companions hadn't quite believed it when they told them about their relationship. After a moment of stunned silence, Genis grins at Lloyd. "You owe me fifty gald!"

The next instant, everyone is laughing and getting settled for a dinner outside. There isn't enough room at Dirk's kitchen table for all of them, so they take a seat outside on the balcony, legs hanging off the edge and plates in their laps, trading stories in the dying sunlight.

Sheena was leaning lazily against him after dinner, back to chest, just letting the familiar voices and relaxed atmosphere wash over her. Zelos bends to kiss her lightly, an unconscious action, and then they hear Colette retelling the story of them all trying out Genis' kendama and they're chuckling and grinning against each other's lips before they break apart, laughter unable to be kept in.


End file.
